Well, it looks like the Bay Area's Sports Teams are getting their fair share of attention this week. Today, All-Star Pitcher of the San Francisco Giants Tim Lincecum won his 2nd straight Cy Young award for the National League. The Cy Young is an award given to the top pitchers in Major League Baseball each season, one given to a pitcher in the American League, the other in the National League. Lincecum narrowly won the award as there was only a 10 point difference between him and the 3rd place winner. This season, Lincecum racked up 15 wins and 7 losses, had an ERA of 2.48, and led the NL with 261 strikeouts. He and the rest of the Giants, surprised the MLB this year as they almost qualified for an NL wildcard spot in the playoffs. Today was also Lincecum's first public appearance since his recent arrest for possession of marijuana on Oct. 30th. During today's press conference, he stated "I know that as a professional athlete I have a responsibility to conduct myself appropriately both on and off the field. I certainly have learned a valuable lesson through all of this and I promise to do better in the future." For Lincecum and the Giants, the future seems bright, provided that Lincecum cleans up his personal life.
For all the baseball fans out there, the link to the article is embedded in the title.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
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6 comments:
I like how the Cy Young Award isn't automatically given to the pitcher in each league with the most wins. This year especially, both Tim Lincecum and Zack Greinke both only had 15 and 16 wins, respectively. It shows that the voters are taking a lot of other statistics into consideration in choosing the most deserving winner.
On an aside, I really think Lincecum needs to cut his hair, it has been bothering me for a very long time because it's so unflattering to him, haha sorry!
I respect Tim Lincecum -- he's an exciting talent to watch (despite the hair) and I don't really care for baseball all that much. However, it disappoints me that he was put into this position of having to lie about regretting his pot use. I don't believe him for a second, not any more than Michael Phelps.
I understand that young people will look up to him and think, well, if it didn't turn the best young talent in baseball into a pile of mush, I guess doing drugs is fine, just like they look up to particularly talented musicians and (falsely) imagine experimenting with drugs to be A-0K. Yes, young people ought to be smart enough to recognize that HEY! YOU DON'T HAVE AS MANY BRAIN CELLS TO SPARE AS JIMI HENDRIX, GET OVER IT, but apparently they (you) are incapable of also noticing the death and misery that often go along with substance abuse, or that many stoners are lazy as sin, or any of the other downsides.
The thing is, while marijuana is decidedly unhealthy for nearly everyone, it just doesn't bring death and misery for the vast majority of users, and most everyone knows it, including Lincecum. I'd respect him even more if he had made the argument that he broke a ridiculous law and that exaggerating the dangers of marijuana causes more problems than it prevents. I guess there are just too many out and out children (not teenagers) who couldn't put that in perspective so he did the safe thing and apologized for something I doubt he feels sorry for.
Yay! Michael, I'm so happy someone posted this. I completely agree with Dana. It's ridiculous me how much wins plays into awarding the Cy Young in the past, since wins is probably the thing that pitchers can control the least. But, it still plays a great in the voting since that Cardinals pitcher who got the most wins also got the most first place votes.
As for all the marijuana crap, I didn't get a chance to watch the press conference or whenever he apologized, but in the apology in Michael quoted, did he really say he regretted smoking pot. It seemed more like one of those "I'm sorry your mad at me" apologies. Maybe he's "doing better" is just not speeding with weed in his car. Yeah, I was kinda surprised that he won after all this happened, because I thought they wouldn't want to acknowledge someone who got caught with weed. And you would think young people would be smart enough, but I guess he just sends out the message that you can still smoke and be successful.
But it also kinda sucks cause this just means arbitration goes up.
Alright Timmy! Watching him pitch is amazing and I absolutely think he deserves the title. However, I agree with Sandy in the sense that it was surprising to see him win after all the controversy surrounding his use of marijuana. I’m glad they could put this drama and other statistics, such as number of wins, aside and really look at how talented he is.
I agree with you guys. I feel like our society is really disillusioned. We tend to elevate people like celebrities and professional athletes just because they're good and famous at what they do automatically believe that everything they do must be right, or that we should do it ourselves.
I'm a little late, but.. I am so glad that Tim Lincecum won the Cy Young. I would have been mad if Carpenter or Wainwright won. Timmy had the most strikeouts and innings pitched, compared to the other guys. It goes to show that wins aren't everything to baseball writers. Zach Greinke and Tim Lincecum winning the Cy Youngs were well deserved.
I disagree with his conduct in Washington though, but I still have mad love for him as a pitcher. Really looking forward to the 2010 season.
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